The Butt Ugly Weblog

--Outi, 15-May-2007

Or then he's really homesick and just tries to make it look noble and sound brave

--AnonymousCoward, 15-May-2007

Oops didn't mean to be AC

--Tuija, 15-May-2007

No, I really am as dumb as I sound...

--JanneJalkanen, 16-May-2007

Heh. I like you theory.

There was one thing funny in your choice of words: that you call it local *minima*.

In biology, they consider evolution as a competition for a (constantly changing) local *maxima*.

Maybe the evolution has finally peaked in the form of an lazy engineer, like you and me, who is seeking the local minima instead of maxima ;)

--Tommi Vilkamo, 21-May-2007

But I'm a physicist, and so I think in terms of energy ;-)

--JanneJalkanen, 23-May-2007

mornin' boys.

indeed in biology we also spoke of local minima. in biochemistry, especially, when describing solutions to formulas of systems.

there are sometimes many local minima whose parameters fit the model equation. one way to test robustness of the answer (other than first seeing if it makes sense) is to put 'energy' into the system to 'shake' the parameters enough that the solution would have to try once more to find the best local minimum.

heh, i see this way of looking at issues all over the place, much like janne has seen it in 'comfort zone'. and in all cases, the idea of putting 'energy' into the system seems to make sense.

heh, aren't we such geeks.

--charlie, 24-May-2007

Well, when everyone around you has a hammer, it pays not to think like a nail... ;-)

--JanneJalkanen, 25-May-2007